What organs have you eaten? A recent family reunion brought me face-to-face with an old tradition I must confess I am not too fond of — kidney stew. It did make me think about which innards get eaten and which ones don’t. You’ve heard of brain tacos and spleen stew, right? Why is it we’ve all heard of people eating tripe (beef intestines) but you never really hear about people eating lungs? And if given a choice, wouldn’t you go for something filled with air instead of poop? How about pork uterus? Or eating one’s own placenta? I suppose something like haggis or a hot dog just gives it to you all at once, no questions asked. ***Photo by peephole via Flickr.***

“How can you call yourselves I Heart Guts if you don’t have the gut?” one of our observant customers once asked us. Excellent question. Well, we’re pleased to announce that the next batch of gutsy plush pals will feature several major digestive system players — from left going clockwise, bladder, spleen (not a digestive system player, but hey), intestine (note the appendix at lower left!) and stomach. I won’t lie, I am really fond of the bladder and have been dying for him to come out. I only wish he was a squirting bath toy. Another good reason to visit us at Wondercon in San Francisco at the end of the month is a chance to fondle these new guts in person before they come out in late March. We’re also rolling out a new limited-edition plush, the Black Heart! This sad little guy was supposed to be an anti-Valentine’s Day plushie, but between getting them tested and getting them paid for with credit as it is, this Black Heart is going to pass over Valentine’s Day altogether. Which is appropriate, I guess. All these guys are child safe, but if you give your child a black heart, you might have some problems.

We’re packing up our guts to head up to San Francisco again, this time for the 2009 WonderCon, an extravaganza of comics, pop culture and graphic geekdom. It’s worth going to not just because you get to see sights like this one, but because it’s a little more mellow than ComicCon — it’s more Last Gasp and Dark Horse Comics than Marvel and DC Comics. Anyway, check out the list of vendors and see if it’s worth your time — Chicago’s Rotofugi will be there, Emily the Strange, Gama-Go, Suicide Girls and on and on. Come visit our booth!

If you’ve never encountered a plush maggot or plush sperm in your life, then drop by purpleflavor.com, where both are in residence. Need a maggot in a bunny suit? Too bad, they’re sold out. Creator Shane Geil can hook you up with an alien sperm, devil sperm and even a super sperm. Yay!

I cannot resist the adorable wares at Loyal Army, they truly make the cutest stuff on earth, and now they have a cute heart trapped inside a ribcage. How I wish we had financial backing like they must have — they’ve got a huge range of stuff — allover print hoodies, kids stuff, etc. etc. Seeing such cute stuff is good for anyone obsessed with putting faces on inanimate objects. But I digress. You’ll be seeing even more and more from them this year, especially since they signed a licensing deal with the big boys.

Has anybody ever played this game, Spill Your Guts? Is is fun? What’s the deal? It sounds like black market organ trade crossed with mad scientist surgery. When you correctly answer an anatomy question, you get an organ as a reward! All right! A pancreas for me! You can’t keep the organ for yourself, though, you have to pop it into your Frankenstein-like patient and hope that you don’t spill his guts. And hope that he doesn’t mind being operated on by an unaccredited, and quite possibly underaged, surgeon.

What is this thing? Why, it’s a spiky, gold-plated, hand-held vibrator that claims to rengenerate your organs! So if you’re missing, say, your gallbladder, the Guardian Angel is the tool for you. The Inquisitr blog pointed out one of several funny reviews of it from Amazon.com, including this gem: “Since losing my spleen in a shocking harpsichord-related accident, I have been searching for a product that would re-generate my lost organ. Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon the Guardian Angel… Tears of joy ran down my face when I read in the Product Features that it would also relieve stress, fatigue and insomnia – all conditions suffered by the spleen-less.” We figure they are talking about organ regeneration in the acupuncture sense of organs, but it’s still funny. And at $149, cheaper than the going rate for a transplant.